Assessing Groundwater Quality for Irrigation Using Indicator Kriging Method

Appl Water Sci (2016) 6:371–381 DOI 10.1007/s13201-014-0230-6 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Assessing groundwater quality for irrigation using indicator kriging method Masoomeh Delbari • Meysam Amiri • Masoud Bahraini Motlagh Received: 18 January 2013 / Accepted: 1 September 2014 / Published online: 14 September 2014 Ó The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract One of the key parameters influencing sprinkler probability maps. The suitable areas for sprinkler irrigation irrigation performance is water quality. In this study, the design were determined to be 25,240 hectares, which is spatial variability of groundwater quality parameters (EC, about 34 percent of total agricultural lands and are located ? - - SAR, Na ,Cl, HCO3 and pH) was investigated by in northern and eastern parts. Overall the results of this geostatistical methods and the most suitable areas for study showed that IK is an appropriate approach for risk implementation of sprinkler irrigation systems in terms of assessment of groundwater pollution, which is useful for a water quality are determined. The study was performed in proper groundwater resources management. Fasa county of Fars province using 91 water samples. Results indicated that all parameters are moderately to Keywords Groundwater quality Á Geostatistics Á GIS Á strongly spatially correlated over the study area. The spa- Probability map Á Sprinkler irrigation - tial distribution of pH and HCO3 was mapped using ordinary kriging. The probability of concentrations of EC, SAR, Na? and Cl- exceeding a threshold limit in Introduction groundwater was obtained using indicator kriging (IK). The experimental indicator semivariograms were often Iran is located in arid and semi-arid part of the world and fitted well by a spherical model for SAR, EC, Na? and Cl-. its water resources are in a critical condition. In Iran, the - For HCO3 and pH, an exponential model was fitted to the average annual rainfall is less than 250 mm, which is less experimental semivariograms. Probability maps showed than one-third of the average rainfall in the world that the risk of EC, SAR, Na? and Cl- exceeding the given (800 mm). The average annual evaporation is about critical threshold is higher in lower half of the study area. 2,100 mm and it is almost three times the world’s average The most proper agricultural lands for sprinkler irrigation annual evaporation (700 mm). Iran’s population is implementation were identified by evaluating all approximately one percent of the world population, while its share of total renewable water resources of the world is only 0.36 percent. Moreover, the spatial and temporal & M. Delbari ( ) distribution of rainfall is not uniform; 70 % of rainfall is Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Water and Soil, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran distributed over 25 % of the country (Alizadeh 2004). In e-mail: [email protected] addition, most of the rainfall occurs in non-irrigation sea- sons. So, groundwater resources play a key role in irriga- M. Amiri tion of arid and semi-arid agricultural lands. However, the Scientific Staff in the Department of Water Resources, International Hamoun Wetland Research Institute, University of suitability of groundwater quality for irrigation purposes Zabol, Zabol, Iran requires to be considered in the beginning for a sustainable utilization of groundwater. Groundwater quality could be M. B. Motlagh influenced by different sources of pollution such as Graduated Student of Water Resources Engineering, Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Water and Soil, University of domestic waste water, urban runoff, intensive application Zabol, Zabol, Iran of fertilizers and solid waste disposal (Hammouri and El- 123 372 Appl Water Sci (2016) 6:371–381 Naqa 2008). On the other hand, most agricultural areas are which was deemed to be more easily available at larger irrigated by traditional surface irrigation methods while sample size. Indicator kriging is a non-parametric geosta- their irrigation efficiency never exceeds 35 % (Alizadeh tistical estimation method, which has the ability to produce 2004). To improve irrigation efficiency and to increase probability maps in which the probability of any soil and water use efficiency in agriculture, a considerable budget water pollutant being larger or smaller than a given thresh- has been allocated for agricultural sector to adapt modern old value is provided (Goovaerts 1997; Cullmann and Sab- irrigation systems effective from 2010. Often, the farmers orowski 2005). Indicator kriging has been used frequently pay only 15 % of the costs for implementation of sprinkler for studying the risk of soil or groundwater contamination irrigation system, and the remaining 85 % of costs is paid (Juang and Lee 2000; van Meirvenne and Goovaerts 2001; by the government. With the modern irrigation methods Goovaerts et al. 2005;Jangetal.2010). Indicator kriging however, the water quality should be carefully controlled to was used by Liu et al. (2004) to assess arsenic contamination prevent water applicator clogging or water distribution in an aquifer in Yun-Lin, Taiwan. Goovaerts et al. (2005) equipments’ damage. In addition, utilization of polluted studied the spatial variability of arsenic in groundwater in irrigation water deteriorates soil physical properties and southeast Michigan using indicator kriging. Dash et al. reduces the crop yield (Shainberg and Oster 1978; Solomon (2010) used indicator kriging to assess the probability of 1985; Lauchli and Epstein 1990; Shahalam et al. 1998). exceedence of groundwater quality parameters e.g. EC, Cl- - Therefore to achieve a more effective conservation of and NO3 in Delhi, India. Ordinary and indicator kriging natural resources, agricultural management of soils and were used by Adhikary et al. (2010) for mapping groundwater becomes essential (Delgado et al. 2010). water pollution in India. They evaluated the spatial vari- 2? - - ? 2- 2? The main water characteristics which determine the ability of Ca ,Cl ,HCO3 ,EC,Na ,SO4 ,Mg and - suitability of ground water for irrigation according to NO3 and produced pollution risk maps for these parame- United States Salinity Laboratory (USSL 1954) include: (1) ters. In another study, Adhikary et al. (2011) used indicator total concentration of soluble salts; (2) relative ratio of and probability kriging methods for delineating Cu, Fe, and sodium to other cations (Mg2?,Ca2? and K?) (3) con- Mn contamination in groundwater in Delhi, India. Piccini centration of boron, chloride or other toxic elements and et al. (2012) illustrated an application of indicator kriging for (4) under some conditions, carbonate or bicarbonate con- mapping the probability of exceeding nitrate contamination centrations that is associated with Ca2? and Mg2? con- thresholds in Central Italy. centrations. Both physical and chemical qualities of water The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of the are important in irrigation systems performance. With groundwater to cause crop problems through toxicity, sprinkler irrigation in which water sprayed over the plants, salinity and soil infiltration rate for determining the suit- low quality of water may cause severe damage, such as leaf ability of groundwater for sprinkler irrigation uses. For this, burn (Keller and Bliesner 1990). Most trees are sensitive to the spatial variability of groundwater quality parameters in even relatively low concentrations of sodium and chloride. Fasa county of Fars province was investigated using geo- Increase in bicarbonate concentration of irrigation water in statistical tools. Ordinary and indicator kriging were used sprinkler irrigation causes white spots on leaves or fruits. to map the spatial distribution and the probability of An increase in calcium carbonate of irrigation water in drip exceeding a critical threshold for some water contaminants. irrigation causes precipitation of particles and emitter clogging (Shatnawi and Fayyad 1996). Point data are usually inadequate to identify vulnerable Materials and methods areas, so appropriate interpolation methods are needed to map the spatial distribution pattern of groundwater quality Description of study area parameters. In contract to traditional interpolation methods which are unable to map uncertainty of the predicted values, Fasa county in southern Iran lies between 53° 190 and 54° geostatistical-based algorithms can be used to assess the 150 east longitude and 28° 310 and 29° 240 north latitude uncertainty attached to the estimated values for incorporat- (Fig. 1). This county is surrounded by the counties of ing in decision making (Van Meirvenne and Goovaerts Shiraz and Estahban from the north, by the counties of 2001). Several studies have been done to investigate spatial Jahrom and Zarindasht from the south, by the counties of variability of groundwater quality using geostatistics. Coo- Darab and Estahban from the east and by the counties of per and Istok (1988) utilized kriging for estimation of Shiraz and Jahrom from the west. The 30-year average groundwater contaminants at the Chem-Dyne Superfund site rainfall is 285.6 mm, the average air temperature is 18 °C in Ohio. Istok et al. (1993) used cokriging to estimate her- and the average annual evaporation is 2,610 mm. The bicide concentration of groundwater in an agricultural elevation from the sea level generally decreases from the region. The auxiliary variable was nitrate concentration north to the south; the central and southern parts of the 123 Appl

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